I for one am in total agreement to require more 2d/3d drawing
skills for metal majors. This is one area I found totally lacking
in my education. I do not draw well, but I have become much better
simply because I practice all the time now. Transitioning from
student to teacher, I find it much easier for my students to
communicate through a drawing, no matter how crude, than waving
their arms about while attempting to describe something they want
to make. Building a little paper model also helps.
You have touched on a subject which has bothered me for a bit and
it has to do with the the thinking between 2d and 3d. I find that
most 2d people can draw well while many very capable 3d thinkers do
not. Why is this? My hypothesis is that good 2d skills are
recognized and supported from a very early age. This very thing
happened with my sister and myself. She was always drawing on
paper, walls, the sidewalk, whatever. She was given much support
all through school and highschool and became a pretty decent
painter. I on the other hand did not draw well at all, but built
things. Giant box sculptures, huge fortresses for my stuffed
animals out of books and milk cartons. Later I took my only art
course in highschool in ceramics and got excellent grades the
entire year. But still my drawing skills were poor. Much later in
life, about 38, I took an adult ed jewlery class and discovered my
hands again.
Mass Art offers a class called, Drawing for Object Makers. It is
an elective, I think it should be a requirement. I took technical
drawing for myself and still struggle with vanishing points and
perspective, but I keep at it.
Karen Christians
Fly Fish Design
282 Lexington St.
Woburn, MA 01801
Current Artwork: